Written and edited by Norm Scott:
EDUCATE! ORGANIZE!! MOBILIZE!!!
Three pillars of The Resistance – providing information on current ed issues, organizing activities around fighting for public education in NYC and beyond and exposing the motives behind the education deformers. We link up with bands of resisters. Nothing will change unless WE ALL GET INVOLVED IN THE STRUGGLE!

Bernie may not even be involved in this for all we know but we do know things have changed as the energy of the semi-anarchic Occupy Movement has shifted to the Bernie campaign.

There has been a shortage of stuff on education coming out of Bernie and his crew. Time to escalate the awareness.

Real ed reformers must be involved in making sure that ed deformers don't jump in and make their phony case that deform is civil rights. (We've seen them to that in the Black Lives Movement).

Right now, despite some criticisms, NPE could be a force if it doesn't get side-tracked into the Randi/Hillary stuff which will be sold as real reform. Union caucus groups like CORE in Chicago and MORE could play a role -- MORE's Mindy Rosier is already deep in the Bernie movement. Some people on the left don't want to hear the words "social democrat" and spend their time attacking Bernie and his supporters. That is the same mentality that led to the left being decimated in Germany by Hitler. I'll take Finland and Denmark any day.

Full article below.

Alex Seitz-WaldApril 21, 2016MSNBCThe progressive movement that supported Sanders existed before his campaign and will continue after it. But Sanders has expanded it and unified it in a way that creates the potential for a powerful post-election force in politics if it can retain at least some cohesion.

Key
allies of Bernie Sanders are planning to meet in Chicago after the
final votes have been cast in the Democratic presidential primary to
plot the future of the movement galvanized by Sanders’ presidential
campaign.

Sanders’ loss in New York’s primary this week has put the Democratic
nomination almost certainly out of reach, leading many to wonder what
will become of the millions of people who donated, volunteered, and
supported his campaign, including many who seem unready to settle for
likely nominee Hillary Clinton.

The two-day People’s Summit is timed for mid-June in order to fall
between the final set of primaries in California and elsewhere on June
7, and the Democratic National Convention in late July. It aims to
continue building the “political revolution” Sanders often invokes and
to develop a “People’s Platform” of issues important to the movement.

“There’s a vibrant conversation going on about what happens to the
movement after the primaries are over,” said Charles Lenchner, who
co-founded the group People for Bernie, which is helping to organize the
summit. “This is a collection of groups that share a lot in common and
want to work together in the future and who represent a significant
portion of the coalition that has come together around Bernie Sanders.”

The event’s partners include many key players — though far from all, at least for now — of the Sanders movement. Lenchner said many other groups are likely to join.

Their focus remains on the campaign, representatives of various
groups involved in the summit said, but they wanted to create a plan to
come together regardless of whether Sanders wins or loses.Taking the lead are People for Bernie, which grew out of the Occupy
movement, and the National Nurses United union, which has endorsed
Sanders and whose super PAC has supported the senator to the tune of
nearly $3 million this year.

They’ll be joined by the environmental group 350.org, which backs
Sanders, various Sanders-aligned liberal groups like Progressive
Democrats of America and pro-Sanders demographic groups. Also on the
list is the Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement Action Fund, which
sponsored Sanders’ earliest visits to the first-in-the-nation caucus
state in 2014. And then there’s the Democratic Socialists of America.

Conversations have already started in lefty circles about what
happens after the primary, with a range of ideas about possible
organizations, tactics and priorities.

Sanders has always been as much a movement leader as he is a
politician, and hundreds of volunteer groups sprouted up organically
across the country to support his candidacy and supplement his
campaign’s relatively light footprint.

Almost everywhere Sanders’ campaign went, local volunteers had been
first, organizing and opening field offices, some of which were absorbed
by the official apparatus. In New York, for instance, it was volunteer
efforts — not the campaign — that worked to get independent voters to
change their party registration before the October deadline.

The progressive movement that supported Sanders existed before
his campaign and will continue after it. But Sanders has expanded it
and unified it in a way that creates the potential for a powerful
post-election force in politics if it can retain at least some cohesion.“Maybe we’re on the cusp of some really interesting political changes,” Lenchner said.

9 comments:

The Hamison Theory of Neutrality of NPE is not a viable strategy for public school teachers hunkered down in urban trenches. Support for ESSA and AFT/NEA endorsements of Clinton are clear indications of appeasement and capitulation in regard to the education reform agenda. I am also a life long Democrat and I am not going to vote for Clinton. We have an abundance of black and Hispanic males serving long sentences for nonviolent drug offenses. We have a failed Middle East policy. My district is well on the way to total privatization. Would you like four to possibly eight more years of Obama's misguided priorities?

If it's Pres Trump, it's the democrats you should thank. When they stop taking teachers' votes for granted and actually scratch our backs after we've scratched theirs, then maybe teachers like me will start voting for them again. Lesser of 2 evils will not get me to cast my ballot for Hilary. If Hilary's the best the dems can offer up, I'd rather vote for a fascist orangutan...and it looks like I'm going to get that opportunity come November. Roseanne McCosh

Lemme guess. You voted for Nader in 2000, because Gore wasn't all you desired. That gave us GWB. I am aware of Obama's flaws, but one should never say, "I'll never vote for [ ]." An election is almost always a choice of the lesser of two evils. Should the Republican get in, you can kiss the Supreme court goodbye. Frankly, everytime I see a 25mph sign while driving, I swear I'll never vote for DiBlasio. But then I edit my comments. I'll never vote for DiBlasio provided he's not running against someone who will be worse.

There was no "pressure" on anyone to invade Iraq. That was an invention of the Bush administration, pure and simple. (although I agree that the old "JFK would have pulled us out of Vietnam had he lived" argument was nonsense). What does it mean to get worse first? The SC stopped the Paris accord on climate. Shall we lose 8 years or 16 before we even begin to get serious about that. What about women who won't be able to exercise choice? Shall we ask them to wait for this upcoming utopia that will arrive once things get really really bad?

And let's look at history. Let these pundits who want things to get worse first give us some examples of how things got so much better after they got worse? No way, Norm. Human history is a catalogue of one disaster after another with incremental change for the good stitched into the fabric. Hillary will appoint a liberal SC justice, or three. She'll move us in the right direction on climate change. She'll work for the environment, for women's rights. She'll try to manage the international disaster that GWB created, one that will continue to cause us misery for the next 30 years at least. I'm for Hillary.

Hillary will get nothing done with a republican congress and states under their control. They will wait her out for years before appointing a liberal justice. On education? Look at her history going back 35 years. Charters will flourish. Yet if I were the deciding vote I might still vote for her.

As for pressure to invade Iraq so many of us knew it was an invention. I view history not as an accident but as a movement from enough of the power structure to make it happen. I don't have faith gore would not have succumbed. And the financial crisis would have happened anyway. The actual president doesn't have as much impact as we think.

Comments are welcome. Irrelevant and abusive comments will be deleted, as will all commercial links. Comment moderation is on, so if your comment does not appear it is because I have not been at my computer (I do not do cell phone moderating).

UFT Election Vote Comparison: 2004-10

A Personal Historical Perspective

Why Karen Lewis Reads Ed Notes

"A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

What media call "philanthropy" for the public schools are actually seed monies to establish a private "market" in publicly-financed education - an enterprise worth trillions if successfully penetrated by corporate America. Cory Booker, one of the "New Black Leaders" financed by the filthy rich, is key to creating a "nationwide corporate-managed schools network paid for by public funds but run by private managers.

"Ed Reformers" want to cash in on public education and to control its content and outcome, not improve it. Provide great education? Baby boomers had as close as this country has ever gotten to it when we were growing up. The Ed Reform Movement has no interest in seeing such a well-educated, democratically astute population ever again.

History of the UFT Pre-Weingarten Years

This award-winning series of articles by Jack Schierenbeck originally appeared in the New York Teacher in 1996 and 1997.

Naturally, from a certain point of view. But, despite certain biases, Schierenbeck, a great guy, was one of the best NY Teacher reporters so this is worth reading. Jack suffered a debilitating stroke many years ago (I used to get secret donations to ed notes from him through a 3rd source.)

“The schism in the union over radical politics [is] a major reason for stalling the growth of a teacher union for decades.” Revolutionary politics and ideology take center stage, as the original Teachers Union becomes a battlefield, pitting leftist against leftist and splitting the union.

Clarence Taylor's "Reds at the Blackboard" focused on the old Teachers Union which disbanded in 1964 after suffering from anti-left attacks.

Effective Union Organizing

A video series put together by Jason Mann from the British Columbia Federation of Teachers about social media and how to use it for effective union organizing.

The first series was called New Media For Union Activists Roadmap and it's still available on-line at:http://www.newmediabootcamp.ca/welcome/I watched some of them and need to rewatch as they are loaded with information.

The second series started last week and it's called "Online Campaigning for Union Activists"

You Don't Have A Choice - Join the Revolt

Hedges says, There are no excuses left. Either you join the revolt taking place on Wall Street and in the financial districts of other cities across the country or you stand on the wrong side of history.

Ex-Harlem Success Teacher Comments on Eva the Diva

I am a former Harlem Success teacher. Not many people who work/worked for her like her very much. I once made the comment that she is very nice when I first was hired. Two of her closest colleague responded immediately almost in unison, "Eve is not nice!" Over time I realized that there was a lot of political games going on. Another colleague once said to me that he was tired of "being part of a political campaign." Sending out 15,000 applications for only 400 seats in a school is reprehensible. The money that paid for those mass mailings could have paid the yearly salary of another teacher not to mention the heartache of all those parents who applied but did not get a spot. She does good work trying to give disadvantaged students a quality public school education but at a great cost to staff AND the school's educational budget! school budget.

GEM's Julie Cavanagh Debates E4E member on NY1 on LIFO and Seniority

Davis Guggenheim Compared to Riefenstahl

“Waiting for Superman" is the second most intellectually dishonest piece of documentary work I have seen. It is surpassed only by Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will," the pro-Hitler propaganda classic, in that regard. Uses personal narratives of adorable children to create narrative suspense that overrides public policy discussion with pure emotion in unscrupulous attack on teachers and their unions, among others

Timothy TysonProfessor of African American Studies and HistoryDuke University

A Familiar Voice on Unions

"We must close union offices, confiscate their money and put their leaders in prison. We must reduce workers salaries and take away their right to strike"- Adolf Hitler, May 2, 1933

How Teaching Experience Makes a Difference

Even as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee and others around the nation are arguing for experienced teachers to be laid off regardless of seniority, every single study shows teaching experience matters. In fact, the only two observable factors that have been found consistently to lead to higher student achievement are class size and teacher experience, so that it’s ironic that these same individuals are trying to undermine both.- Leonie Haimson on Parents Across America web site

Outsource our children

Weingarten/Gates Foundation announce drone-driven teacher evaluation

According to a press release issued by the Gates Foundation, the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, these three have entered a ground-breaking partnership to evaluate teachers utilizing the drone technology that has revolutionized warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. A bird-size device floats up to 400 feet above a classroom and instantly beams live video of teachers in action to agents at desks at Teacher Quality Inspection Stations established by the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

When asked if the drones were authorized to drop bombs on teachers who exhibit inadequacy, Chester E. Finn, Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, replied, "Don't be ridiculous. Gates money puts other methods at our disposal."

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5-million-member American Federation of Teachers said the powerful union has signed on to the drone project...

Teacher Value-Added Data Dumping by Norm Scott

The Real Reason Behind Push for Standardized Tests: It's All About the Adults

On standardized testing in our schools

A must read article about the standardized test industry.Written by an insider who has worked as a test scorer, the article outlines a multinational industry based on an army of temporary workers paid by the piece at $0.30 to $0.70 per test, translated in the need to grade 40 tests per hour to make a $12 salary. The article goes on to show how the companies gauge the grading "results" based on the need to ensure new contracts to continue profiting off of our youth. The original article is from Monthly Review. Here it is on Schools Matter blog.

From Sharon Higgins

Parallels between America today and Germany in the 1920's and early 30's

"Resentment and obstruction are all the right wing in America have to peddle. Their policies are utterly discredited. Their ideology - even by its own standards - is a sham. They are so bereft of leaders, their de facto leader is a former drug addicted, thrice-divorced radio talk show host. That is literally the best they can muster. But they have built a national franchise inciting the downwardly mobile to blame the government, not the right, for their problems, exactly as Hitler did in the 1920s."

Chicago View of Unity/UFT on Charters

After many meetings and debates, the Chicago delegation succeeded in working with the New York United Federation of Teachers, Local 2 (UFT) to push the AFT to take stronger stands on charter school accountability and school closings — though many delegates from Chicago would have liked the language to have been even stronger.

Generally speaking, the New York delegation represented organizing charters as the best model for handling their role in reshaping unions, despite the fact that according to many reports few charter schools in New York have been organized as is the case in Chicago. This logic is the same touted by the Progressive Caucus of the AFT. The few that have been organized are a part of the UFT local though they have separate contracts negotiated with the help of UFT. The Chicago delegation reflection the mindset that allowing new charters to continue to proliferate while attempting to organize existing charters is an end game in which public schools and the union lose.

Ed Notes Greatest Hits: HSA Rally and Founding of GEM

Angel Gonzalez and I attended that rally and used the footage to promote our conference on Mar. 28, 2009, which is where the concept of a group like GEM emerged. Until then we had basically been a committee of ICE working with the NYCORE high stakes testing group. The actions of Eva and crew helped spawn GEM. Mommie Dearest!!

I have more video somewhere. I was hoping to get Leni Riefenstahl to edit it but she died. We would have called it "Triumph of the Hedge Fund Operators."

Video of Chicago's George Schmidt and CORE Shredding Arne Duncan and the Chicago Corporate Model

Great Post on Teacher Quality at the Morton School

I'm very tired of the myth that schools are bursting at the seams with apathetic, unskilled, surly, child-hating losers who can't get jobs doing anything else. I recently figured that, counting high school and college where one encounters many teachers in the course of a year, I had well over 100 teachers in my lifetime, and I can only say that one or two truly had no place being in a classroom.